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Drexel News Alert: Financial Aid Scam - Identity Theft

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[originally posted on the Drexel official mailing list...]

SUMMARY:
Someone impersonating a U.S. Department of Education official is offering
students grants for a processing fee.

It has been brought to our attention that someone claiming to be a
representative of the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is calling students,
offering them grants, and asking for their bank account numbers so a
processing fee can be charged. Specifically, the caller tells the student he
understands the student has federal student loans and offers to replace the
loans with an $8,000 grant. The caller explains that a processing fee must
be charged and obtains the student's checking account information.

We want to remind you that there is no ED program to replace loans with
grants and that there is no processing fee to obtain Title IV grants from
ED. Furthermore, you should never provide their bank account or credit card
information over the phone unless you initiated the call and trust the
company you are calling.

If you are a victim of this or a similar scam, you should take the following
steps:

1. Immediately contact your bank, explain the situation, and request that
the bank monitor or close the compromised account.

2. Report the fraud to ED's Office of Inspector General hotline at
1-800-MIS-USED (1-800-647-8733) or oig.hotline@ed.gov . Special agents in the
Office of Inspector General investigate fraud involving federal education
dollars.

3. Report the fraud to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The FTC has an online complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov/scholarshipscams
and a hotline at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357; teletype for the hearing
impaired: 1-866-653-4261). The FTC will investigate if the fraud is deemed
widespread; therefore, it is important that every student contacted by the
person or people in question lodge a complaint so the FTC has an accurate
idea of how many incidents have occurred.

4. Notify the police about the incident. Impersonating a federal officer is
a crime, as is identity theft.

When filing complaints, you should provide detailed information about the
incident, including what was said, the name of the person who called, and
from what number the call originated (if you were able to obtain it via
Caller ID). Additionally, if unauthorized debits have already appeared
against your bank account, you should mention this fact in your complaint.
Records of such debits could be useful in locating the wrongdoer.